Budget and Taxation

On Measuring The Extraction Costs Of Taxation

By Lawrence A. Hunter
September 7, 2007

This study proposes a more complete measurement of the costs of extracting reveune under the existing Internal Revenue Code and for alternative tax systems, including a national retail sales tax. Read complete study here. . .

Developing consistent Tax Bases for Broad-Based Reform

By Fiscal Associates, Inc.
Draft, September 2011

Interest in far-reaching tax reform will begin again as the nation confronts financing entitlement growth. There will be a need to simplify the tax system and to promote increased saving, investment, and growth. Tax reform fever will intensify during the 2012 Presidential election cycle because many contenders and others will be proposing some combination of spending cuts and tax changes to close future deficits. Simply cutting spending and raising taxes is unlikely to succeed. As taxes are raised, growth will necessarily slow as the economy adjusts to a lower level of output. Lower output will mean lower tax revenues, setting off yet another round of spending cuts and tax increases. This vicious cycle will only end if the tax system becomes more efficient and growth-oriented.

This paper computes the tax bases for the following three tax reform proposals: a business transactions tax; a comprehensive factor income tax (flat personal income tax); an expanded retail sales tax (Fair Tax). In this paper, we find the revenue neutral tax rate, assuming no growth effects, and assuming no exemptions, deductions or credits. Recognizing that relief for low income taxpayers will inevitably be part of any tax reform, we also estimate tax rates assuming that each plan will provide a refundable credit equal to the tax rate times the poverty level. (This amounts to subtracting the identical amount from each tentative tax base.) Finally, we will combine the three bases to examine four hybrid proposals that split the rate between each of the combined bases. Specifically we will examine a variant of the Laffer/Moore Tax that combines the business transactions tax and a flat personal income tax and a plan that combines all three bases.
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The Minimum Wage Increase And Unemployment

Originally Posted At Republican Study Committee
July, 2009

On January 4, 2007, when the Democrats took control of the U.S. House of Representatives, the minimum wage stood at $5.15 per hour and the unemployment rate was 4.6%. On May 25, 2007, the Democrats enacted a plan to raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 over three increments. As evidenced by the above chart, rising unemployment since 2007 has coincided with minimum wage increases. So Chairman Miller was right: life has dramatically changed for millions of people.
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A New Small Business Surtax = New Small Business Job Killer

By The J.E.C.
July 15, 2009

Larry Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, recently opined: “I don’t think the worst is over... It’s very likely that more jobs will be lost. It would not be surprising if GDP has not yet reached its low.”i This is cause for concern at a time when unemployment, at 9.5%, stands at its highest level in 26 years. An additional 2.6 million American workers have lost their jobs since President Obama took the oath of office. More jobs were lost in June than in May. Against this backdrop, congressional Democrats want to increase taxes on the engines of job growth and innovation for our economy – small businesses.
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Taxpayers in 39 States Could Pay a Top Tax Rate Over 50%

Originally Posted At Tax Foundation
By TF Staff
July 15, 2009

Fiscal Fact No. 178
New taxes to fund the federal government's plan for higher health insurance spending continue to be debated in Washington. According to a new Bloomberg report, the top surtax rate will be 5.4 percent in the House plan.[i] That will be the top rate in a three-tiered surtax aimed at high-income tax returns...
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Recent News

Federal Employee Gravy Train

Monday, January 30, 2012

Source: The Washington Times

Federal workers earn 16 percent more in total compensation — including wages and benefits — than comparable private-sector employees, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The key difference is in benefits, where federal workers average more than $20 per hour in compensation — 48 percent higher than the $13.60 in prorated hourly benefits in the private sector.
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Ind. Lawmakers: "Pee Test For Thee But Not For Me"

Friday, January 27, 2012

Source: Huffington Post

A member of the Indiana General Assembly withdrew his bill to create a pilot program for drug testing welfare applicants Friday after one of his colleagues amended the measure to require drug testing for lawmakers.
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America, arms-dealer to the world

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Source: Salon.com

Retired lieutenant colonel's take on the military-industrial complex: As a country, we seem to have a teenager’s fascination with military hardware, an addiction that’s driving us to bust our own national budgetary allowance. At the same time, we sell weapons the way teenage punks sell fireworks to younger kids: for profit and with little regard for how they might be used.
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Still Convinced Tax Increases Work?

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Source: CBSChicago.com

After largest tax increase in Illinois' history, the state still can't pay its bills. Only solution is to cut government spending says state comptroller.
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GOP Voters Split On Interventionism

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Source: The Washington Times

Nearly half of all Republican primary voters say it’s time the U.S. stops intervening in world affairs and focuses on domestic priorities instead, signaling a persistent rift that is playing out in the party’s presidential nomination battle.
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CNN Poll: Obama tied with Romney & Paul in November showdowns

Monday, January 16, 2012

Source: CNN

New CNN/ORC International Poll released Monday also indicates that Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas are running even with President Obama in possible showdown this November.
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Solid Majority Want ObamaCare Repealed

Monday, January 9, 2012

Source: Rasmussen Reports

Most voters still want to see the national health care law repealed and believe repeal of the controversial measure is likely.
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Obama Darling of the Military-Industrial Complex

Friday, January 13, 2012

Source: Raw Story

President Obama is leading the pack in donations from the defense industry: according to the Center for Responsive Politics, he’d taken in almost $112,000 from defense industry donors through December 2011, twice as much as Mitt Romney, the leading Republican recipient of defense-industry campaign contributions.
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How Much Abuse Will We Accept From Government?

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Source: Huffington Post

Jail inmate dies after deputies directly sprayed him and fogged his cell with pepper spray at least 8 times. Deputies then put him into a restraining chair, a controversial device that binds inmates at both wrists, both ankles, and across the chest, and then sprayed him at least two more times after he had been strapped to the chair. He was also stripped naked, and outfitted with a "spit mask," a hood designed to prevent inmates from spitting on jail personnel, which kept the pepper spray in close proximity to his nose and mouth, ensuring he would continue to inhale it for the full six hours he was in the restraint chair.
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Another Iranian Nuclear Scientist Assassinated

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Source: ABC News

A young Iranian nuclear scientist was killed by a magnetic bomb placed on his car by a motorcyclist in Tehran Wednesday. Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, is the fourth scientist linked to Iran's nuclear program killed in the past two years, which Iran blames on the U.S. and Israel. Both countries officially deny the accusations.
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